I took a lot of pride in my work between starts and my preparation that I would go through with my pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre as well as my dad in Tampa. I wonder if at that point you felt, "Hey, this is easy."ĭW: I didn't feel like it was easy, but I'll tell you what, I felt like I could be successful for a long time. You led the league in strikeouts twice and in ERA once. From '84 to '86, you won 58 games and lost only 19. I spent the rest of that day, when I finally got the courage to drive home, in my apartment with the drapes closed, the shades pulled, and basically just by myself just sobbing all day.īL: You were 19 years old when you joined the previously disappointing Mets back in 1984, and as it says in the book, "a whole lot of Mets fans thought the savior might be me." For a time, you pitched as if you could be that savior. And that's when all the shame and the guilt and embarassment came in and every negative thought that you could imagine going through my head. And I saw the sun come up and, watching when the parade started on TV, that's basically what sobered me up. Obviously, I never made it out of that apartment. My goal was to get a little bit of drugs and go back and join my teammates at a local bar.
DOC GOODEN LSD GAME SERIES
Unfortunately three hours after clinching the World Series and celebrating with my teammates, I found myself in housing projects in Long Island partying all night drinking, drugging through the wee hours of the night. Highlights From Bill's Conversation With Dwight "Doc" GoodenīL: Dwight, Doc begins with your failure to join your teammates in celebration after the New York Mets had won the 1986 World Series, but tell us about where you were the day of that celebratory parade and the night before it.ĭG: What should have been the highlight of my baseball career at that point. Gooden, a former Cy Young Award winner and MVP, is sober today. With Newsday columnist Ellis Henican, Dwight "Doc" Gooden has produced a chronicle of his decades-long struggle against self-destruction via drug and alcohol addiction. Dwight Gooden's ease and grace on the field, contrasted with his destructive habits off it. Twitter facebook Email This article is more than 8 years old.